A recipe for perfect vanilla cupcakes stuffed with lemon curd and topped with lemon buttercream. Your new favorite dessert and heaven in every bite!
This recipe features the lightest and most perfect vanilla cupcake recipe I’ve ever tasted. Seriously. They are the starting point for almost every cupcake I make! The best part? They are SO easy. No ‘room temperature eggs’ or fancy ingredients.
The vanilla cupcake serves as the perfect vessel for the silky lemon curd filling and light and slightly tart lemon buttercream frosting. The combination of the three components is absolute perfection.
Read on for the recipe for lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling!
How to Make Stuffed Cupcakes
If you’re wondering how I put lemon curd into these cupcakes, I have a foolproof method! Just use an apple corer to gently twist out the center of the cupcake. Then add the filling of your choice, like ganache, lemon curd, or buttercream frosting. you can also add filling to cupcakes using cream chargers with a cream dispenser. Top with frosting and wait for everyone to be surprised with their first bite.
Even in lemon curd isn’t your thing, this vanilla cupcake works great with the filling of your choice. I’ve also stuffed them with mango curd and even colored cake pops!
Closed Star Piping Tip
To frost these cupcakes, I used a Wilton extra-large closed star tip to pipe a single ring around each cupcake. If you want more lemon, make the ring wider and you can spoon a bit of extra curd in the center.
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PrintVanilla Cupcakes Stuffed with Lemon Curd
A recipe for perfect vanilla cupcakes stuffed with lemon curd and topped with lemon buttercream. Heaven in every bite!
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Yield: 14 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the vanilla cupcakes:
- 1 1/2 cup (170 grams) cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk
For the lemon curd (makes extra):
- 1/3 cup lemon juice, about 2 lemons
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch table salt
For the Meyer lemon buttercream:
- 1/2 cup egg whites (about 3 large eggs)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Special equipment:
Instructions
Make the vanilla cupcakes:
- Combine the dry ingredients. Beat in the butter on medium low. The mixture should resemble coarse sand. Beat in the sugar on low.
- Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and milk. Mix until just combined.
- Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, pour into lined cupcake pan until 2/3 full.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
Make the lemon curd filling:
- Heat lemon juice over medium heat until hot but not boiling.
- Meanwhile, whisk eggs and yolk in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the sugar. While whisking, slowly pour hot lemon juice into the eggs. Return to saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until mixture registers 170 degrees and coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in butter. Once melted, stir in cream, vanilla, and salt.
- For a more even texture, strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer (optional). Curd is able to be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks, just cover with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.
Make the lemon buttercream:
- Bring a medium pot filled with one inch of simmering water to a boil. Place the egg whites and sugar in a stainless-steel bowl (like a stand mixer bowl) and place on saucepan. Use a whisk to beat the mixture until very hot (about 160F).
- Remove from heat and mix with the whisk attachment on high until it is cool, thick and glossy and has tripled in volume, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce speed to medium and add butter a few pieces at a time. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and continue to beat until smooth and fluffy.*
Assemble the cupcakes:
- Use an apple corer to gently hollow out the center of each cupcake, not going through the whole depth of the cupcake.
- Spoon lemon curd into each cupcake. I like using an espresso spoon for this part!
- Use an extra large closed star frosting tip to pipe a rosette on each cupcake. If you want, you can leave a space in the center and fill it with more lemon curd. Finish with a sprinkle of coarse sugar.
Notes
Notes on Making & Troubleshooting Buttercream Frosting: If the frosting is too soft and doesn’t seem to be coming together, it’s possible that it’s too warm. You could try popping it into the fridge for 10-15 minutes and then re-mixing with the paddle attachment in your electric mixer until it comes together and is smooth and satiny. In general it’s hard to over-whip buttercream, so I would err on the side of mixing it longer to see if you can salvage it, even as long as 15 minutes!
Vanilla Cupcakes by Ming Makes Cupcakes Lemon buttercream by Country Living
Did I give you a serious craving for lemon curd cupcakes? Pin this recipe for later!
Wondering what else to do with your lemon curd? Try pavlovas topped with lemon curd!
P.S. – Looking for more lemon recipes? Here are some of my faves:
Tartine Lemon Shaker Pie
Lemon Tartlets
Mini Pavlovas with Lemon Curd
Fig & Chèvre Appetizer Bites with Candied Lemon
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
Dried Lemon Slices
These look SO good, and as I’m going down the post I’m thinking “man, those pictures are so good… the lighting is perfect” and then I did a double take when I saw that you posted what the setup looked like- I LOVE that! Thanks for the tips, I can’t get enough photography tips…evveeeerrrr!
Thanks Stephanie! I love seeing how other people get their shots – I think that’s the best way to learn!
Yes please and thank you! I love anything lemon. This sounds so delicious and these photographs are lovely! Drooling just thinking of these… now I want a lemon cupcake for breakfast, oh dear. Better get the oven heated ^_^
XO
http://www.threadandbones.com
Haha, lemon cupcake all day every day, right?
Your cupcakes looks divine the color looks so summery! The lemon curd makes the cupcakes better and full of surprise 🙂 Thank for sharing Kelly! your photos looks great!
I love how bright the lemon curd is! Can you believe it is like that without any added dyes or coloring? Nature is amazing! 🙂
hi! im from europe an having trouble figuring out the measurements for the butter. my googling says that one stick is 110 grams but that doesnt work with the cup measurements. seems to ge twice as much then 🙁
Good question! Looking at a stick of butter it is 112 grams. There’s no standard way to convert cups to grams – if you measure a cup of lead versus a cup of flour the weights will be very different! In this case, 112 grams of butter is a half of a cup!
How far ahead of time can you make these cupcakes? I am looking for a lemon curd cupcake for a shower on Saturday, but I won’t have time to fill and decorate them that morning.
Good question! I ate them right away so I can’t say for sure, but I suspect doing them the night before would be fine.(Just keep them in the fridge until about an hour before serving) If you try it, can you let me know? I’ll update the recipe to help others with a similar question.
Hi Shauna – I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. I know how frustrating it is when a recipe doesn’t work, especially when the fault isn’t your own. You’re right, 400F is really too hot for most cupcakes. This is an unfortunate typo on my part and it should have been 350F. I hope you’ll try making them again – they are really wonderful. My sincerest apologies.
No problem…I should have went with my instinct! The batter was delicious so I can only imagine how good the cupcakes would have been. I’ll definitely try them again 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to respond!
I really hope you do. I promise they are heavenly!!
Hi!
Sounds like a yummy thing to definitely try!
Do you think I can sub the ‘granulated sugar’
for powdered sugar in the icing?
Thanks!
Hi Sherri – because you are cooking it, you do need to use regular sugar, not powdered.
Thanks for the clarification, I was wondering why! Can’t wait to make these for an upcoming fundraiser….plus an extra batch for myself, of course. 🙂
The flavors are great, but the frosting is much too soft to hold any shape out of the piping bag. I checked the temperature and believe I followed the instructions exactly. Is there a fix for this? When I looked up other recipes, most seem to use cream of tartar – is that necessary or helpful?
Thanks!
Hi Kim – I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the buttercream! It can definitely be finicky (no matter the recipe) and when I first started making cakes I had more than one batch fail before I got the hang of it. This type of buttercream doesn’t use cream of tartar.
It’s hard for me to say for sure where the hangup was. It’s possible that it’s too warm. You could try popping it into the fridge for 10-15 minutes and then re-mixing with the paddle attachment in your electric mixer until it comes together and is smooth and satiny. In general it’s hard to over-whip buttercream, so I would err on the side of mixing it longer to see if you can salvage it (even as long as 15 minutes). I hope that helps!
I, too, had a very soft frosting that would in no way hold shape or stay on a cupcake. But upon reading this, I kept beating (with the beater attachment, as I felt the whist wasn’t getting it whipped enough??), and the frosting suddenly started to “take hold” and get stiffer – like cream gets when it goes from frosting to butter. So I did a few more seconds and stopped. Glad you said you can’t over-mix buttercream. It encouraged me to keep beating. Now it’s in the fridge so I can frost later. Hope it’s still good when I need it! Fingers crossed! 🙂 Very tasty though! Not too sweet with a touch of lemon.
That makes me so happy! I think because of this I’ll actually add this tip to the recipe itself so it can help other people too! Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing your experience.
Hold the phone – I’m sorry. 🙁 It ended up pretty sad. Although the frosting taste was great, and most of the cupcakes got eaten, I had to apologize for the frosting looking so awful. I’m sure I did something wrong. And I’m wondering if the lemon curdled the frosting. After refrigerating, it was as hard as just butter. I left it out to soften up again so I could beat it and smooth it out, because it still didn’t quite look like frosting – more like whipped butter. But it ended up just melting and dripping. It wouldn’t pipe thru a tip, so I lumped it on and “spread” it with a knife, adding a few strands of lemon zest to the top to make it more appetizing and fancy. Lol. I’m sorry to have to report this. I’ll have to study that video you posted, which I saw after I made the frosting. But thank you! The whole cupcake was a hit for the yummyness of it all.
Argh, that’s frustrating! As someone who has several failed batches of buttercream in her past, I encourage you to stick with it. An annoying amount of it is just getting the right feel for the recipe. If you feel like the buttercream is too warm, I would only put it in the fridge for 5-10 minute intervals to let it get cooler. Chilling it completely before it’s made is hard to recover from since it thaws at different rates. I also try to pipe it onto the cupcake before I put it in the fridge for longer than a few minutes because of the experience you describe. Hope that helps!
Yes, I put it in there much longer than 5 min, while I made the cupcakes. Totally backwards. And piping it after refrigerating for over an hour, was difficult for exactly the reason you said – it thaws very unevenly. And then most of it started just melting, really. Anyway, perhaps I shall try again. My attempts at frosting have always been very challenging – esp vegan frosting recipes. Always way too soft. Thanks for all your help and comments.
Oh, and I love this tutorial for talking through a similar buttercream type: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/swiss-meringue-buttercream-demystified/
For the cupcake itself is it salted or unsalted butter?
Hi Tiana – Unsalted butter!
How many cupcakes does this make?
It should make 14-16. Sorry that info isn’t there. I switched recipe formats and it looked like it deleted the number of servings. Working to fix it!
No worries! Thanks so much for responding. I am adding this recipe to my ones to try. They look delicious.
Was thinking of putting the lemon curd in between layers of white cake do you think the curd is sturdy enough to hold up cake layer?
It’s delicious but unfortunately won’t work well between layers. It’s the consistency of yogurt more or less.
Havent tried the recipe. Just read it. Looks heavenly though. But 1 thing…if u dont mind… Where and how are we using the boiled water? Thanks.
Hi Safia! You heat the egg whites and sugar in a bowl placed over the simmering water. It’s used to make a water bath. Hope that helps!
Hi! I made these with your exact recipe and they taste amazing just perfect. The first time they even looked exactly the same. How ever except for the first time my cupcakes always overflow despite tasting good, like they expand out of the cup from the sides and when they cool they just slump from the middle so they just look like their top was hammered.. any tips on how to fix this?
I used your exact recipe.
It sounds like you might have filled your cupcake liners too full. The finished cupcake should have a gentle dome and not overflow the liners. Typically that’s about 2/3 full of batter. Hope that helps!
They were 2/3 full alright, although I think I should be using a little less baking powder don’t you think? Also when I buy cupcakes from outside most of them are huge and bulky and nicely domed way above the cupcake liners, and I can’t help but wonder how are they not flat, lol. Much thanks for the super prompt reply Kelly
These turn out gently domed for me rather than having a big dome, which is what I prefer as the frosting goes on easier! If you play around with the baking powder, let me know!
In the buttercream should the butter be chilled or room temp?
Just out of the fridge is fine!
Can you pipe in the filling rather then cutting off the top? I’m making about 100 cupcakes of different kinds and looling for shortcuts.
Hi Cindy – If you have a method to stuff cupcakes that you’ve used in the past, such as piping, I’m sure it would work for this version too!
I made a little too much of the lemon curd (definitely not a bad thing!)…how long do you think it will it keep for in the fridge or freezer? I’m wondering if I could save it for an Easter dessert. Thanks!
It will keep in the fridge for about a week, but it should freeze for much longer! I found this article: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/lemoncurd.pdf
Hi Kelly.
Thinking making these yummy cupcakes for Easter. Was wondering if it’ll be possible to substitute the buttercream with a lemon cream cheese frosting?
Absolutely! I bet it will be amazing!
Great! Will let you know how they turn out. ?
I made these for Easter and they have turned out perfectly! What a wonderful recipe! I look forward to seeing what else you put on! Thank you 🙂
Amazing! That makes me so happy. Thanks for letting me know and happy easter!
I’m lying n bed the day before I go talk to the doc at a bariatic clinic and how I started looking at recipes on Pinterest is beside the point. I started reading this yummy sounding recipe and actually snorted from laughing when I read your descriptions of how to,use the lemon curd. IF I decide to,have the surgery, I am going to make,this for my “last hurrah”
This made my day! Best of luck at your appointment tomorrow.
Great recipe! I always read your blog. and I must say you are doing good job. Need to check out Thrive.
Made a mini batch of these last night and they turned out so good! I added lemon zest to the batter and used whipped cream on top. Making a whole batch today!
So glad to hear that! Thank you for letting me know and if you share on social make sure to tag me so I can see your work! <3
Looks delicious, I wish there was a video to go along with it!
Oh my gosh me too!! It’s on my never ending to do list!
Little confused by ingredients. Mix dry ingredients, do I set aside? Then cream the butter and add the sugar then eggs one by one THEN add the dry ingredients??
Do not set aside the dry ingredients. Add the butter to them!
And there are no issues with over mixing the batter causing peeks or sinkage?
I would follow the recipe as is. You shouldn’t have any issues as the mixture becomes sandy once the butter is added. It’s a different technique and yields awesome results!
I followed the lemon curd recipe to the T but it doesn’t seem like enough for 14 cupcakes should I make more?
Oh no! It should definitely make more than enough. It never hurts to have more though! 🙂 Good luck!
Would this work in a layered cake, doubling the recipe? I want to make a gender reveal cake with either raspberries or blueberries in the lemon curd.
Would this recipe work in a layered cake (likely doubled or tripled). I want to make a gender reveal cake with raspberries or blueberries in the lemon curd. Not sure I’ll have the time to make them as cupcakes. Thanks!
I think it would work as a layered cake but the lemon curd wouldn’t be stiff enough to go between the layers. You’d have to use the buttercream with a thin layer of lemon curd on it.
Ok awesome thanks for the reply and that makes sense using the buttercream
I usually always measure by weight, so when I saw your note of 300 g (doubled) of flour I used it instead of the cup measurement.
That seemed off to me but I didn’t check it at the time.
I doubled the batch, made the batter, wondered why it looked so different, but thought maybe that’s just how this batter is, and so I went ahead and baked.
They didn’t turn out. At all.
Then I finally thought about the amount of flour and I remembered… one cup of flour weighs 120 grams, not 100 (according to King Arthur Flour). So the 300g of flour was where it was incorrect! Just wanted to leave a note about that for anyone else who, like me, normally uses weight.
Gonna try the recipe again in the morning and hopefully get it right! The batter itself, though unusable, is delicious!
Hi Amanda – I’m not sure where you are seeing 300 grams of flour. The only mention in the recipe is for 150 grams of flour. Best of luck on your redo.
It gives the option to scale the recipe 1x, 2x, or 3x, and the measurements all changed.
So that’s where the 300g came into play.
I’m actually in the middle of redoing it today with my three year old and so far it’s working out better! I’m amazed it made it to the cupcake liners because he just kept trying to eat it. ?
Got it! I make this recipe frequently using the weight of 150g cake flour and it always turns out so let me know how using a bit extra flour works for you.
Just pulled them out. MUCH better!!! I must have erred elsewhere, aside from just the flour weight.
That’s what I get for baking at 11:30 at night instead of going to sleep. Haha!
Thank you!
I made these for a baby shower yesterday and they were a huge hit. I did for the sake of time use a box lemon cake mix because I was also making another variety. This doubled nicely. I was scared I messed up the frosting but after cooking in the fridge it fluffed up like magic! I also added poppy seeds per the mom to be request. Will definitely keep these in my book for future use!
Thanks for the great recipe. I made them for a birthday lunch for a coworker. Love the frosting! An easy tip for the lemon curd is to put it in a Ziploc baggie and cut one of the corners off to make it super easy to neatly squeeze into the cupcakes.
Just wondering, how far in advance of eating the cupcakes can you fill them? Are there any special storage requirements? Sorry if I missed that info! Thank you!
I wouldn’t do it more than a day in advance because they will get soggy. They need to be refrigerated once filled and/or frosted.
My lemon curd was perfect. My frosting was to loose, I put in drug
It did not get stiff . I am looking for another lemon frosting.
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. I Will also share with my friends!
Can this batter be made as a cake?
Yes! You might have to adjust the baking time though depending on your pan size.
This is not a buttercream frosting but a meringue.
I used only the cupcake recipe and didn’t try the other two. But this was the best vanilla cupcake recipe. So simple and the taste and texture are as I like them, firm and soft to taste.